Esper named a co-editor of Journal of Business Logistics

The Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) has provided an academic forum for logistics and supply chain management research for nearly 50 years. Its longstanding ties to Ohio State encompass leaders from the Fisher College of Business faculty, including one of the journal’s newest editors. 

Terry Esper, professor of logistics, was recently named an editor of the peer-reviewed JBL, a publication of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). A noted logistics researcher, educator and thought leader, Esper is one of three scholars selected to the quarterly journal’s next editors-in-chief team. 

“The selection committee’s choice of our editorial team to lead JBL is both humbling and energizing,” said Esper, who is joined by Christian Hofer and Rod Thomas, professors of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. Esper, Hofer and Thomas, appointed to four-year terms, will work alongside JBL’s current editors-in-chief before taking over full leadership in January 2026. 

“As Chris, Rod and I prepare for this next phase of our careers, our team will be busy engaging with our academic community to gain feedback and insights, with a goal of learning how we can best serve our colleagues during our forthcoming tenure as co-editors,” Esper said.

Esper’s appointment follows other noted Fisher faculty who have served as JBL leaders, including founding editor Bernard “Bud” LaLonde. A professor and recognized researcher in logistics and supply chain management, LaLonde established the journal at Ohio State in 1978, before it became a CSCMP publication. Other faculty members to lead the JBL have included Walter Zinn, chair of Fisher’s Department of Marketing and Logistics, and former professor Thomas Goldsby, who served as co-editors from 2015-2020. 

“I am particularly excited to bring the oversight and management of JBL back to Ohio State,” Esper said. “Professor LaLonde was a trailblazer, and much of the growth of the logistics academic community was due to his launching JBL here. The ability to carry that legacy forward is quite an honor and serves as a testament to the continued influence of Fisher in this important business discipline.”